Me & Stephen Parrish Talk Book Marketing

April 30, 2010

My friend Stephen Parrish’s first novel, THE TAVERNIER STONES, has hit the shelves and I encourage you to rush out to your favorite bookstore, online or bricks-and-mortar, and buy yourself a copy. It ain’t for nothin’ that I’m quoted on the back as saying, Relentlessly fascinating, Stephen Parrish’s Tavernier Stones is reminiscent of Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol ... It’s one hell of a good time.

Then, once you get the book, read it and pop on over to www.tavernierstones.com and start Stephen’s online treasure hunt to win a real one-carat diamond. Which brings us to today’s post, which is a lengthy conversation Stephen and I had online about book promotion, particularly as it relates to book signings. Stephen’s convinced (as am I) that online promotion is more effective and efficient than book signings (particularly for Stephen, who lives in Germany). Here we go:

Mark: I tell my wife that book signings are Writers Penance. It's something we do for the sins of enjoying ourselves writing. A friend of mine recently said to me, "But I thought you said book signings don't work. Why are you doing so many?" To which I said, "It makes my publisher happy." I think there are some rationale for doing them, but we'll get to that. What do you think?

Steve: I think it's sales that make the publisher happy, not spinning wheels. Given a choice between an author who sells and doesn't do signings, and an author who doesn't sell but pounds ground, bless his heart, which do you think the publisher is going to contract for a follow-on book?

I have to admit, right from the start, I'm so new in this business that I haven't done a single signing. But I've been listening for years to reports by writer friends, including you, and as I plan my promotional activities during the next several months, I question why I should consider putting book signings on the agenda at all.

Mark: Well, let's talk about, from my point of view, the reasons for doing book signings. First of all, it's not usually about selling books. Generally speaking, when you're starting out, nobody's going out of their way to visit a bookstore to buy your book and meet you. A few in the store, maybe some friends and relatives, and then those folks who just like to meet authors or who have a particular penchant for new authors. The thing I hear most is that you're building a relationship with booksellers. I have a somewhat skeptical attitude about this. For independent bookstores, yeah, that's probably true (and they're disappearing daily). I don't have many indie bookstores near me, so it's never been much of an issue. For the chain stores, Borders, B&N, etc., I'm not convinced this is a big deal. The stores have too much turnover in terms of their employees for most of them to get to know you one way or the other; they move too many books to be too dazzled by an author who will be lucky to move a handful or more at a signing event. Much of the events for both are handled through corporate headquarters, although that policy's shifted a bit for Borders. The last few years Borders events were handled almost strictly by a regional events coordinator and if that person hadn't heard of you, you were pretty much locked out of 20 or 30 stores in a region. There's apparently been a partial shift back toward individual store events, but I had the unusual experience of the event coordinator at a Borders I signed at telling me he checked out my Amazon ranking before he agreed to host my signing. (He'd probably get fired for that, wouldn't you think?)

So, having pointed out the limitations, what are the pluses? In order to get a book placed on a central table at the front of the store or somewhere else prominent, publishers need to pay for that real estate (co-op) and it costs thousands of dollars. So most don't unless you're making the publisher millions of dollars. But by doing a signing and autographing stock, it gives the stores themselves an incentive to put your books out on those front tables with an AUTOGRAPHED COPY sticker on them, which draws some attention to the book. It used to be that bookstores couldn't return signed copies, thus forcing them to actually try and sell them, but those days are over. Who of us hasn't bought autographed remainders? If the stores put out a newsletter and put an ad on their website or sometimes even in the local newspapers, that's good marketing for you. One of the stores I signed at recently had a big poster made up with both me and my book cover on it and put it in the window of the store for a good week prior to the signing. I couldn't possibly pay for that kind of advertising, but I got it essentially for free. Sometimes local media will pay more attention to you because you're doing signings and that can lead to some media time in print or radio or TV, although that's sort of hit-and-miss. It's a nice way to meet up with your readers. I just did a signing at the Royal Oak Barnes & Noble and the first person to buy my book was somebody who had bought my other two a month ago at my signing in Ann Arbor at Aunt Agatha's. I don't know if he came specifically for that, but I definitely appreciated that kind of interest in my books. Otherwise, well, Writers Penance.

Hey, tell me more about your online activities. I did a blog tour (still sort of ongoing, although more low-keyed) and I'd highly recommend it. But you've got something cool going on.

Steve: I'm all for building relationships with booksellers, but the problem with book signings is, they're extremely inefficient. How far did you have to drive to conduct your last signing? To build a relationship with a couple of bookstore employees? Who might not be working there three months from now, or remember your name next week? An autograph certainly adds value to a book, and if you're passing through town, by all means stop at the bookstores and sign stock. But should you make a road trip specifically for that purpose?

Joe Konrath is my hero and guru. He stands on a pedestal. But he's speaking out of both sides of his mouth. On one hand he argues, brilliantly, that the publishing world is transforming. It's going digital, and the curve is about to exponentiate. Publishers need to wipe the pigeon shit out of their eyes. The dogmas of the past are no longer valid, if they ever were. Out of the other side of his mouth he continues to urge writers to pound ground and grip-and-grin in the same old pre-internet ways they were limited to in pre-internet times. When you have the theoretical capability of reaching millions of people without getting up from your desk, why would you spend a day driving across the state to reach a handful?

We need to focus on more efficient ways to reach readers. I've been looking at press release services, for example, and I can't find one geared for writers. They all want to know whether I'm targeting the African American community, for instance, or high income families. Jews. Scuba divers. You name it. We need press release and newsletter services that target readers, book clubs, and the like. We need to use Skype and video conferencing to speak to groups more efficiently. We need to direct our energy in ways that capitalize on the technology available to us, and if necessary we need to develop those ways ourselves. Wouldn't that make our publishers happy?

Mark: I think sales would make them happy and seeing that you’re invested in marketing somehow. My publishers pushed book signings, but I’m sure they’d be pleased if I came up with something else creative to find a tipping point. The other problem I see with book signings in general has to do with the actual number of bookstores in the U.S., which is a number that’s sort of hard to come by. Supposedly there are fewer than 2,000 independent bookstores, about 517 Borders stores, and about 777 Barnes & Nobles. So throw in probably less than a thousand more, let’s estimate there are maybe 4,000 bookstores in the U.S. Although I know Joe Konrath visited about 1,200 of them, I can’t think of very many other authors who, even on an ambitious tour, hit more than a hundred or so. And I know that just hitting a dozen can be pretty time consuming and exhausting. And I’m not sure how doing 12 signings really creates a bump in your national presence. We need to start local and hope word-of-mouth spreads, but you’re right, the Internet gives us a wider reach for a lot less time and energy. I thought my blog tour was far more effective than the book signings and a lot less tiring.

Steve: Joe has the personality to do what Joe does. Few of the rest of us share his talents. I'm perfectly comfortable speaking in public, in fact I enjoy it. But I've seen my share of fellow speakers sitting next to me on or off stage, waiting their turn, frightened so badly they're shaking. I wouldn't advise such people to speak on behalf of their books. For my own part, I don't have the personality to cold-approach customers in a book store, as Joe is so effective at doing. If I didn't know him I'd make a wide circle to avoid him, just as I do for the people who try to get me to sample cheese or whatever in the grocery store. Book signings may be right for some people, and it's probably right for everybody if they stick to their local communities (because there's no travel expense involved; my beef is not about the activity, rather its efficiency). But I don't think it should be automatically assumed that the author is going to incorporate them in his or her marketing plan.

I'm an amateur winemaker. Suppose I wanted to market my wine nationally (forget the plethora of legal obstacles). Spending my afternoons in liquor stores, trying to get the guy who came in to buy a bottle of tequila to buy my Riesling instead, would be just about the dumbest approach I could take. Yet that's what's routinely expected of authors. I live in Germany; someone in Austin Texas has suggested that if I don't travel there to do a book signing he'd set up for me then I'll be "blowing a precious opportunity." The public, and most of the writing community, it seems, has the notion that book signings are simply the thing to do, regardless of whether they're effective or efficient.

I'm going to try some online schemes in the coming weeks and months. One of them, an armchair treasure hunt tied to my novel, is already underway. I'll come back to let you know how things turned out. I've got a couple of local events set up as well, and you probably won't have to pry a report out of me about those.

Mark: At least you’d get to drink your wine. I agree with you totally about Joe, by the way (Hi, Joe!). What works for him doesn’t necessarily work for the rest of us poor schlubs. But I’m still speechlessly trying to come to grips with the fact that Joe’s your hero and guru. Aside from that break with sanity, I think you’re on the right track and I think your treasure hunt will catch on and you’ll sell a few million books. I’m sure that would make both you and your publisher. happy.